strictly ballroom

Director: baz luhrmann

Actor: paul mercurio,tara morice,bill hunter,pat thomson

Data Published: Thu Aug 20 1992

Genres: Comedy,Drama,Music,Romance

Key Words: farce,caricature,mockery,fake documentary segment,ugly duckling

IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0105488/

WIKI: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strictly_Ballroom

Description: Strictly Ballroom is a movie starring Paul Mercurio, Tara Morice, and Bill Hunter. A maverick dancer risks his career by performing an unusual routine and sets out to succeed with a new partner.

Plot: Strictly Ballroom tells the story of an Australian ballroom dancer, Scott Hastings (Paul Mercurio), and his struggle to establish his personal style of dance on his way to win the Pan-Pacific Grand Prix Dancing Championship. Scott's steps are not strictly ballroom, and as such are denounced by Australian Federation head Barry Fife. Scott comes from a family with a history of ballroom dancing and has been training since childhood. His mother Shirley teaches ballroom dancing, and his father Doug meekly handles maintenance chores at the dance studio, while secretly spending hours in a back room watching old footage of dance competitions. After losing a competition to a rival pair, because Scott started dancing his own steps, his dancing partner Liz (Gia Carides) leaves him to team up with Ken, whose partner Pam Short (Kerry Shrimpton) has broken both her legs in a car accident. With Scott now partnerless and only 3 weeks until the Pan-Pacific Championships, Shirley Hastings and her co-instructor at the studio, Les, embark on a desperate hunt for a new partner for Scott. Meanwhile, unbeknownst to both Shirley and Les, Scott is approached by Fran (Tara Morice), a "beginner" dancer at the studio. The plain and slightly clumsy Fran is initially rebuffed by Scott, but eventually, intrigued by her willingness to dance "his way", along with her feisty attitude, he agrees to audition her and the pair form a new, albeit secret, dance partnership. The pairing faces its first challenge when Barry Fife, in an effort to pull Scott into line and prevent him from threatening the Dancesport status quo, arranges for Scott to become the new partner of the glamorous Tina Sparkle, an established Champion dancer in her own right whose partner is retiring. When Shirley and Les hear the news, they are overjoyed; Fran, happening upon them exclaiming over their happiness about Scott's new dance partner, misunderstands initially and believes they have discovered that she and Scott have become partners. When she realises the truth, and Scott neither contradicts it nor reveals the truth about their partnership, she leaves, devastated. Scott chases after her and although she is hurt and upset with him, he entices her to dance with him, and her anger is forgotten. However, their dance is witnessed by several onlookers, among them Shirley and Les, who then do everything they can to persuade both Scott and Fran that the best way forward for all concerned is for Scott to forget about Fran and sign on as Tina Sparkle's partner. Fran reluctantly accedes and returns home. Scott argues with his mother, telling her he won't become Tina's partner. He follows Fran home, where he is discovered and challenged by Fran's Spanish father, who is suspicious of Scott's reason for being with Fran. In an attempt to prove that he and Fran are dance partners and thinking he will impress her family, Scott proposes that they dance a Paso Doble for the assembled company. They begin dancing, but soon stop when their performance is met with jeers and catcalls. Fran's father and grandmother then demonstrate how the Paso Doble should be danced, and offer to teach the youngsters, telling Scott that he must feel the beat of the music in his heart. Over the next week, Fran and Scott spend hours training and practising, supported by her family, and Scott realises that his ugly duckling beginner dancer has transformed into a skilled and passionate partner, for whom he has strong feelings. However, rumours begin to swirl around the Dancesport community that there are new dance steps about to be revealed/sanctioned. Chairman Fife, suspecting that Scott is in some way responsible, decides that desperate measures are called for and stages a heart to heart with him, telling him that Scott's own father Doug fell into the same trap as he, Scott, is about to, that of turning away from established ballroom traditions to dance in his own style. Fife says that dancing Doug's own way cost Scott's parents their dream, a win of their own at the Pan Pacifics, and that it will break his father's heart if Scott makes the same mistake. Coincidentally Scott's old partner Liz has now been dumped by Ken, and is keen to re-pair with Scott for the Pan Pacifics. Swayed by Fife's story and not wanting to cause his parents further heartache, Scott abandons Fran, and returns to Liz. The first round of the competition goes well for the pair, with Scott sticking to traditional ballroom steps, and being congratulated by all. Fran has entered the "Beginner" competition, dancing with another beginner girl. After her dance, Scott and Fran run into one another, and she angrily accuses him of caving into pressure and betraying her and all they worked towards, then leaves with her family. Scott's father corners him and confronts him, forcing him to listen to his own version of the events leading to Doug and Shirley not winning the Pan Pacifics so many years previously. The truth is that they never competed because Fife persuaded Shirley that to compete with Doug would be too risky and instead she should dance with Les (subsequently losing anyway), abandoning Doug in the process, much as Scott has just abandoned Fran. Scott sees that he has been manipulated by Fife, and runs after Fran, persuading her once again to forgive him and compete with him as they had planned. Meanwhile, in another part of the building, Scott's friend Wayne overhears Fife telling old rival Ken, now himself partnered by Tina Sparkle, that Fife has rigged the competition for Ken to win it, irrespective of how anybody else dances. The next round begins, Scott having missed the final call to compete, and Fife believes he has won, until Scott and Fran make their own dramatic entrance and begin dancing, immediately riveting the audience. Fife tries to order them from the floor via the PA system, however Wayne disconnects the power to it. Desperate to stop Scott and Fran's performance, Fife then tries to turn off the music, but Scott's sister Kylie and her partner Luke (from the children's division) interfere until Fife's loyal companion Charm Leachman disconnects the power to the sound system, stopping all dancing. Fife then disqualifies Scott and Fran, but Doug, unwilling to let Fife beat Scott and win again, begins clapping out a beat to enable Scott and Fran to continue dancing. He is joined, first by Fran's family, then by other members of the audience, as Scott and Fran begin dancing again, drawing cheers from the crowd and tears of joy from Doug. Finally Liz, having had a change of heart, turns on Barry and Leachman and restores the music. Scott and Fran's spirited dancing as well as their defiance of Fife, brings down the house. Doug asks Shirley to dance with him and the whole audience joins them on the floor. As the performance finishes, Scott and Fran kiss, the competition forgotten.